Culture and Heritage
The Dorking area has enjoyed cultural associations for centuries, and the beauty of the landscape has inspired many writers, artists, musicians and poets. The arrival of the railway link to London in 1867 attracted writers and artists to the Vale of Mickleham. Some, like novelists Fanny Burney, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and George Meredith, and the artist George Scharf, lived in the area. Others, including Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, Spencer, Milton, Jane Austen, Keats, Dryden and Robert Louis Stevenson regularly visited the area.
Most have been inspired directly by the beautiful local scenery. Jane Austen's novel 'Emma' featured a picnic here. Fanny Burney's novel 'Camilla' was set in Norbury Park. George Eliot's novel 'Romola' was set in Dorking, as were many of Daniel Defoe's travel anecdotes. Keats wrote 'Endymion' whilst staying at the Burford Bridge Hotel, formerly the Fox and Hounds, and declared about Box Hill 'O, thou would'st joy to live in such a place'. A prolific writer, George Meredith, who lived at Flint Cottage below Box Hill, drew most of his inspiration from walks on the Downs, and regularly hosted Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and Sir James Barrie. Richard Brindsley Sheridan author of The Rivals and The School for Scandal, lived on the site of Polesden Lacey before the current mansion was built.
EM Forster visited West Hackhurst, his aunt's house in Abinger regularly and spent much time in the Surrey Hills. His novel Passage to India is arguably one of the finest of the 20th century. Forster wrote scripts for two local pageants - Abinger Pageant in 1934, and England's Pleasant Land at Westcott in 1938. His essay Abinger Harvest, written to celebrate the village, was published in 1936.
Of the musicians associated with Dorking, there can be none more famous than the towns own son, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), who founded the Leith Hill Music Festival. The lovely Tillingbourne Valley inspired his haunting melody 'The Lark Ascending'. He conducted his first evening concert in Dorking in 1905.
Artists who drew inspiration from the Mole Valley area included George Lambert (painted Wotton Park), Richard Redgrave (painted The Emigrants' Last sight of Home - Abinger), Cornelius Varley (painted A House in Westhumble), John Linnell (painted A View of Norbury Park from Box Hill), William Mote (painted Abinger Mill) and George Scharf (painted Limekilns at Betchworth).
